the water cycle

this week we have been learning about the water cycle, the miracles, the blessings, the science behind it etc. we started by getting some books from the library, we read and discussed them.

then we made our own picture of the water cycle, to make it a little more fun and crafty, we made the picture out of tissue and crepe paper (this part they loved), then we wrote what happens during the whole cycle on separate pieces of paper and stuck them on (by this part they my sons hands were aching! if you know what i mean)

today we done an experiment by boiling some water in a pan (just a small amount), i held a cold plate over the boiling water, to show the kids that the steam turns back into water when it cools down, after a while the water had almost evaporated completely, we discussed that this is a similar process to the water cycle.

other things that i want to do relating to this topic are:

one of the books above 'a drop of mercy' has some refrences of the qur'an which i want to go through and discuss.

maybe some worksheets.

http://www.kidzone.ws/water/index.html

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/swater.html

some videos

http://www.neok12.com/Water-Cycle.htm

another experiment

http://www.mcwa.com/kids.htm#cycle

Muhammad (s.a.w) Lapbooks

we started working on lapbooks about a week ago, finally they are complete! its about the prophet Muhammad (s.a.w), obviously it's impossible to cover everything about the prophet in one lapbook, so i picked bits of information that i thought that the children could remember and would be of interest to them. i wanted them to work together but my daughter wants everything of hers to be perfect, so she refused to work with her brother and wanted to do her own one, so i gave in.

this is the cover of my sons lapbook, he is six years old.

i tried to keep it as simple as possible and with as less writing as i physically could (or he would have been put off altogether). the big blue square has the names of the Prophet (saw) parents, grandfather and his foster mothers names in each flap. the white square in the top left corners is a list of words describing the prophet (saw), i.e. shepherd, illiterate, kind, generous etc. the little blue square in the top right corner is a little pop-up saying the prophet (saw) is the Al-Ameen (trustworthy). the blue paper with the picture of the kaa'bah is telling us that the prophet migrated from makkah to madinah.

this list is of the prophets, that Muhammad (saw) met on his night journey, in the seven heavens. also the white flap has the names of some of the battles that the Prophet (saw) fought in.

the pink flap tells us that Muhammad (saw) became a prophet at 40 years old.

this the cover of my daughters lapbook, she is eight years old.

hers is a little more detailed than my sons.

we start of every lapbook with a brainstorm, this time my daughter stuck her brainstorm into the lapbook.

there is a flap with all the names of the Prophets (saw) wives. and a picture of cave Hira, where the Quran was first revealed, with a little bit of the verse written as well.

there are flaps with the names of the prophets, parents, grandfather and uncle, and another one with the names of his (saw) children.

there is an envelope with some true or false questions, and a list of some other names of the Prophet (saw).

every part of the lapbook was followed with stories, descriptions, questions and answers, discussions. i also want to do a family tree of the prophet (saw), and maybe look into some of the miracles that he done (miracles always seem to get the kids excited). inshallah.